New Tech From Bosch Aims To Stop Bike Crashes With A Jet Thruster
Motorbikes are awesome, but by riding one, you have to accept they’re inherently less safe than cars. After all, you’re sitting outside on something which isn’t capable of standing up of its own accord.
That’s not to say there’s nothing that can be done in terms of safety, aside from wearing the best protective clothing you can afford. ABS, traction control and even airbags - both on bikes and in leathers - have been interesting areas of development for bike safety in recent years, and now, Bosch has come along with a particularly unusual solution to make riding less dangerous: jet thrusters.
Picture this: you’re banked over and riding at speed around a corner, when you hit a low-grip surface. Perhaps there’s dirt on the road, or fuel. The bike will start to slide, and potentially hit the floor in what’s known as a ‘low-side’ crash. What Bosch is proposing stands a good chance of stopping such an accident.
Sensors detect wheel slip, and when the system reckons the slide is unrecoverable, it fires a jet of gas from the ‘high side’ of the bike. And just like that, the tyres are pushed back into the tarmac and regain grip. Crisis - hopefully - averted.
There are a few issues with the idea, however. It’s currently just a single-use device, and you can’t help but worry about what might happen if the system fires by accident.
But it’s very early days for the concept: Bosch hasn’t even confirmed if it’ll bring the idea to market, and if it did, we can expect it to take some time to arrive on production bikes.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Thank you, Bosch, for actually caring about the world of motorcycles.
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I reckon it would make a decent anti theft system if it could crash thieves off bikes
I guess that push will give a good amount of stress for the suspension,maybe tyre durability as well. But it would be sick to watch a moto gp race, riders abusing that system blasting gas on every corner.
Now I’ve seen everything.
so now the boy racers on motorbikes can push their luck even further before they go off at a even higher speed…….
on a serious note, id is an interesting system that probably could save bike and riders if it actually is a concept that will work as intended.
This is a truly interesting idea, using thrust to correct a potential low-side crash. And I’m sure some amateur is going to figure out how to turn both thrusters on going straight for obvious, squid-related reasons.
So like RCS but on bikes? (KSP guys know what I’m talking about)
Imagine the guy riding next to him turn into Two Face
e x c u s e m e w h a t t h e f u c k
I notice that you can also solve the problem by adding two wheels, not in the way they did in the video tho, don’t put hinges on the supports. also, with the space gained, you can add more seats, and a trunk, hey, I’ve just invented the car!